Archetype: The Tricky Riddle

[Thannujah Mathiy]

A Tricky Riddle
‘What a strange man you are,’ said the cautious Penelope. ‘I am not
being haughty or contemptuous of you, though I’m not surprised that
you think I am. But I have too clear a picture of you in my mind as
you were when you sailed from Ithaca in your long-oared ship. Come,
Eurycelia, move the great bed outside the bedroom that he himself
built and make it up with fleeces and blankets and brightly coloured
rugs.’
-The Odyssey, pg. 305, lines 173-180

The ‘Tricky Riddles’ are usually used in stories as a way to help a
hero prove something to someone. These archetypes are also used in
situations such as when the hero’s life is at risk, they can save
themselves by answering the riddle. Another use is that if the answer
is correct, the hero wins something. The use of the “Tricky Riddle”
archetype offers an interesting plot to a story. It keeps the reader
entertained and helps twist the plot. This is possibly the reason
towards why it is still used in many stories today.

This excerpt is taken from the end of the story after Odysseus returns
home. Though Odysseus kills all the Suitors, Penelope is still not
sure if he is the real Odysseus or not. As a way of testing him,
Penelope tells Eurycelia to move the great bed from out of the
bedroom. This is a test because only Odysseus and she know that the
bed can only be moved by god himself because of the way that it was
built. Odysseus, who is angry, cries to her that she cannot do this
and explains that he built it so no one could move it. Penelope
realizes that Odysseus is in fact her husband and bursts into tears of
joy.
Though the excerpt was not exactly a riddle, it was still a way of
making Odysseus, the hero, prove his true identity.

‘ “Cyclops,” I said, “you ask me my name. I’ll tell it to you; and in
return give me the gift you promised me. My name is Nobody. That is
what I am called by my mother and father and by all my friends.”
-The Odyssey, pg. 119, lines 365-368

The excerpt above was chosen to represent the “Tricky Riddle”
archetype as well. When the Cyclops asks Odysseus what his name is,
Odysseus plays with words and tells him that his name is Nobody. This
is because, after Odysseus blinds the Cyclops, his friends come
running and asks him what happened. He responds with:

“O my friends, it’s Nobody’s treachery, not violence, that is doing
me to death.”
-The Odyssey, pg. 120, lines 407-409

The friends think that nobody hurt the Cyclops and they leave. The
word Nobody could be said to have been used ironically because none of
the Cyclops’ know who he is or where he came from. So, to the Cyclops
population, he is a nobody.